Compare And Contrast The Four Forms Of Government

Improved Essays
Several different forms of government were found in the city-states of Ancient Greece. In order to compare the qualities of the different governments we must first understand what distinguished each form from another. For this paper we will look at the governments types of aristocracy, oligarchy, monarchy, tyranny and democracy in city-states and discuss the similarities and differences of each focusing especially on those that share strong similarities. Aristocracies and oligarchies are both forms of governments that are ruled by a small group of people. In aristocracies that small group is intended to be made up of those that are in the best position to rule, “the morally and intellectually superior” (Aristocracy, 2016). Of …show more content…
Democracy was something new and experimental and certainly still influenced by those that would have been part of an aristocracy or oligarchy. Many of the city-states in ancient Greece cycled through these various forms of government as dissatisfaction with the current form of government or institution by a conquering party would implement a change. While these were all considered different in name they seemed to serve the wealthy and influential. Even democracy was often considered controlled by individuals, as Thucydides said of Pericles’ control over the Demos in Athens (Blackwell, 2003, para. 4). As there appeared to be so much instability in the governments of Ancient Greek city-states it seems like the identification of any individual system was dependent upon the person viewing it. And often was some combination of two forms. The oligarchy of Sparta might well have considered themselves an aristocracy. What might be a monarchy to one is a tyranny to another, what is a democracy to some may be a farce of an aristocracy to another. This is something that we still see with discussions of governments

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The term Democracy is described as a system where the power is invested in the people. People have the choice to vote who can be in charge of the power. For example, the US is a democracy where the people get to vote on what they want. Athens in the 460 to 320 BC was a democracy at the time.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Roman system, the people were ranked into classes based on wealth, heritage, administrative competence, marital status, and physical and moral fitness. This ranking system came with perks if you were ranked into a higher class, and also the ability to be at a higher status than people and gain more power. This forced the people to become better citizens so that they wouldn’t fall into a lower class, because that would have many disadvantages. The people became better citizens to go into a higher class, assuming that they would go into a higher class. In Athens, each citizen had an equal chance to be elected, which is indeed a true representation of democracy.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Athens Essay To begin to write on the topic of Athens is a remarkably overwhelming and broad undertaking. The city turned empire had some of the most creative and groundbreaking advancements to human society the world has ever seen. The city was one surrounded by controversy, a rogue doing whatever it wanted in order to achieve this city created in the wake of the goddess of wisdom, Athena. Some loved it, some did not. While many sources documented the city in a variety of aspects, we looked at two, the Periclean Funeral Oration, as well as Pseudo-Xenophon on the Athenian Constitution.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Picture it! Sparta, 490 B.C. Sparta, a powerful city-state in ancient Greece, is known for learning one thing, war. Different from its neighboring city-state, Athens, boys were taken away from their mothers at the age of seven and were taught the art of war, instead of mathematics, Philosophy, and other subjects. The Spartans are also known for defeating thousands of enemy soldiers with only 300 Spartan men at the battle of Thermopylae (even though they all died.) Those are the things I do know.…

    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ancient Greece Dbq

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ancient Greece has contributed a variety of subjects from poetry to philosophy, but what are the areas Ancient Greece had the greatest influence? Ancient Greece has been significantly influential to American culture, specifically in the area of political structure and science, although, entertainment is also noteworthy. In 508 BCE, Democracy begun (Doc. 1); a political system that introduced unbiased judgment and would be later expanded upon for the American political principles. Democracy was a government crafted by the people, that is to say, Athenian men who were allowed to vote.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Greek Democracy Dbq

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Democratic were the Greeks? In this paper, we will get an understanding of the relationship between Greek Democracy, the military needs, and social class divisions of Greek city-states. Solon helped to create the constitution for Ancient Greek’s democracy. The ancient Greeks remained in small city-states because the mountains and coastlines cut them off from one another. The government was constantly changing and a form of Democracy developed in some city-states.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Yet, was ancient Athens truly considered, democratic? With the Athenian’s government being consisted of a civilian voted government, voted laws that give equal justice to all, and the ability to allow foreigners to become citizens, the Athenians were lucidly a democracy. With democracy being considered a people’s government, the thought…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Was Athens truly a democracy? Athens was not a democracy because, the government members were the ones who determined who was a citizen, who obtained rights to vote, and who was a slave. An example would be, citizen men, only of Athens could vote, women and metics were not allowed to vote. This would prove that it indeed was not a democracy, and was proven to be a oligarchy, where as high social class and men would be making the calls, even though stated by Pericles, that social class should not interfere. (Document A, B) A council would gather once a year to see if anyone was a threat to democracy, if the answer was yes, two months later, they would come back with the name of the person and remove them from that political area.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Democracy is governed by majority of the poor class's wants/needs. One form of democracy that was mentioned is the constructed based on equality where no one has an advantage on another person. Aristotle emphasizes the importance of a government that will help prevent injustice and that is practical to society. He also sheds light on the fact that everyone is different and the government needs to fulfill the different needs. For example, someone with a disability needs more assistance than a person without a disability.…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The political structures of Greece and Rome depended on a city-state model. Regardless, the distinction between them Greece is a mountainous landmass with a pointedly fluctuating coastline with different little islands. The nobility of every city-state protected its freedom and demoralized any endeavors to shape a monarchy. In this manner, making the association between the Greek city-states was restricted, bringing about every city-state to grow autonomously of each other.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For years the debate over whether or not Classical Athens under the rule of Pericles was a true democracy has been a subject for controversy. Some historians argue that Pericles was an elected ruler and that Athens was “ruled by her first citizen” instead of by the people while others argue that Athens was a true democracy based on the actions of the Athenian city-state and the way their government was set up . However, Athens under the rule of Pericles should be considered a democracy for several reasons. These reasons include Pericles’ rise to power, the different members of government and their powers, and the changes in the idea of a democracy.…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even though many of these city states shared the same religion and did in fact speak Greek each in many ways had its own unique identity and therefor, created its own style of government. The Four main governments that were established were Monarchy, Democracy, Oligarchy and Tyranny. Monarchy is defined as “A supreme power or sovereignty held by a single person.” From around 2000-800 B.C most Greek city states were indeed monarchies.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Democracy, by definition, is a system of government by the people for the people. Socrates’s aristocracy aims to govern by for the people, but gives the power of governing into the hands of the philosopher kings. Both systems of government have the same goal, however Socrates criticizes democracy because he thinks that most ordinary people (craftsmen) do not have the knowledge to govern themselves, and the excessive desire for freedom and other appetites can be unnecessary (557e, 559b-c). That is why the rulers in his kallipolis, the kings of philosophy, should govern because they make rational decisions that are advantageous to the city and the people. Again, is that…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Question: Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states. Democracy Democracy is a form of government in which the people have a voice in the exercise of power, typically through elected representatives (Oxford Dictionary). Athens’ constitution is called a democracy because it allows the interests of all people in the system of government not just minority. We have known that the democratic system of government is governed by the people so it has the most government officials chosen by lottery and served the people for a year.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states. In today’s world democracy is the most popular and encouraged form of government. However in its history, it was given birth to in an era that witnessed the use and implementation of most of its counterparts. I like to call those forms of government, democracy’s predecessors.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays